THE number of firms and individuals looking to invest in the North-East's commercial property has doubled in the past year, say experts.

With the domestic property market booming, the Council of Mortgage lenders last week made an unprecedented call for a rise in interest rates to stabilise it.

Now it has emerged that the region's commercial property market is also experiencing a huge increase in demand, with companies and individuals queuing up to invest in the sector.

Malcolm Holmes, a Sunderland agency surveyor for commercial estate agent GL Hearn, which has nine branches in the UK, said: "I think it's fair to say that there's certainly a lot more interest in commercial property, particularly in terms of investment.

"We are probably receiving twice as many inquiries as this time last year from people looking for commercial property investments in the area.

"We are getting between four and five a week."

Mr Holmes said many of the inquiries were coming from companies in the south, and covered all types of property.

"A lot of companies from the South are phoning us up out of the blue asking what we think of properties because they can get good returns on them," he said.

"Most would like to have a mix of industrial, office and residential properties."

He said further demand was coming from individuals.

"Within the past few weeks, we have had a number of private individuals with money to spend who see property investment as a way forward," he said. "There are cases of people with self-administered pension funds who buy commercial property and put their own business in as a tenant, which can be quite a good idea."

Another commercial estate agent, based in Durham, who preferred not to be named, put the increase in property investment down to falling interest rates and the poor stock market performance.

He said: "Demand from tenants is reasonably strong but not as strong as the investment demand." Commercial property prices had risen by ten to 15 per cent in the past year as a result, he added.